Bullet-point Report: Vaanam

The glass-half-full side of me wants to deliver a smallish pat on Vaanam’s back and label it, like how bad critics often label almost-innovations, a “praiseworthy attempt,” especially within mainstream parameters, and even if, many years ago, Aayitha Ezhuthu took us through its lives-converging trajectories with far more sophistication.

The glass-half-empty side, however, is still shaking angry fists at what could have and should have been a milestone. How do you plan a film with so many intersecting stories when half the story strands are simply not interesting enough?

Why have a song during the opening credits if you’re going to have a song immediately after? Couldn’t the names of cast and crew appear over this other song and give us back those lost three-odd-minutes of our life?

But that song in the opening credits embodies the film’s philosophy: Dheivam vaazhvadhu yenge? Thavarugal unarum manidhargal nenjil. And this line is trotted out, exhaustingly, each time a character, in his nenju, unarndhufies a thavaru that he’s done. Is there something in the water in Tamil Nadu that transforms moviemakers into earnest moral science teachers?

In Aadukalam, the year’s finest film so far, Dhanush forwent his heroisms in favour of a devastatingly honest conclusion to his character. It’s nice to see actors do what they want to do and not necessarily what they think they need to do in order to keep their fans happy – and it’s nice to see Simbu and Anushka follow suit, the former as a man with a pitiably shallow ambition and the latter as a prostitute who’s refreshingly accepting about her profession.

But Simbu still has his mass-intro scene, his comedy sidekick (in Santhanam, whose best line I’ll reveal later), his songs and his dances, and his heroic end (where he doesn’t appear a bit impacted by the explosive climax). His character, supposedly, longs for a better life, but he looks extremely content with the one he has. It’s all just fun and games – even when he’s caught by the cops, the scene is treated as comedy. So when his big scene comes – possibly the bravest scene of his career – you don’t feel socked in the solar plexus. The tightening desperation that should have led to this moment has long since dissipated.

Santhanam’s best line: When he wants to borrow a man’s bike, and when that man refuses, saying that his bike is like his wife, Santhanam retorts, “Appo yen da vaasal-la vachu wash pannare?” LOL!

You could take Anushka away from the movie and not miss a thing – except, probably, that long, long waist.

And what atrocious dubbing. Even by our very low expectations of Tamil-film heroines and their commitment to learning lines so that they at least seem to be pretending to say what they’re meant to be saying (outside of the dubbing artist), this is a new low.

And considering how blasé she is about her body and how it makes her lots of money, how much better it would have been if she’d used that as currency to convince the doctor to treat her friend. Instead, we get the disgustingly sentimental sight of a god-figure pendant being displayed, and that makes the doctor finger his own god-figure pendant, and he changes his mind… Ugh!

Speaking of jewellery, what’s with that ridiculous subplot about chain snatching? Again, these episodes are milked for laughs, and we never catch a glimpse of the desperation that drives Simbu.

If you want proof that this is a director armed with a sledgehammer, the last scene has it. The boy shows he’s a genius. His grandfather shows he won’t be a pushover any longer. It should have ended there. Instead, we get this sentiment hammered in by the villain. Is there something in the water in Tamil Nadu that reforms villains into vocal champions for their director’s pet causes?

Anushka does her own bit of vocalising the director’s thoughts, in the scene at the hospital where, instead of reflecting on her personal situation, she issues a global cry about the hopelessness of it all.

And Bharath is stuck with the worst instance of the director’s tendency to put his thoughts into his character’s mouths. With a bottle of mineral water, Bharath begins to explain the “why” of the movie – while we silently scream “why oh why!”

The film’s most aggravating aspect is possibly its programmatic screenplay (which, of course, will be explained away by defenders as vital mirror events that bolster the central conceit of cosmic coincidence) – Prakash Raj is sent into a tailspin by the plight of a pregnant woman and he recovers at the sight of a pregnant woman; Bharath treats a Sardar callously and he’s reformed by the intervention of this very same Sardar; the man that Prakash Raj saves is the very man who discriminated against him; Simbu needs 40000, and accordingly, his grandmother gives him exactly 3000 and the old man has exactly 370000…

I liked the detail that Saranya fumbles through her deception first, like a nervous first-time actor facing the audience on opening night, and it’s only the second time that she’s able to pull off her lies with a straight face. This is very true to the character, and this is what she’d do.

But that said, the actress is desperate need of playing a plush society matron who pets her Siamese kitten as she picks up young studs in a BMW. Enough, already, with becoming this generation’s Kamala Kamesh.

The film’s best scene? In a police station, Simbu strikes up a conversation with Anushka after they’ve both been arrested. Then he’s taken away and roughed up, and somewhere in this mess, he confesses to being in love, and after a while he’s let go. As he’s stepping out, she halts him and asks, “Unmayileye love-aa?” Why is she so interested? Is it just an onlooker’s curiosity? Or is it the hankering for an emotion she knows she’ll never experience? He pauses, as if to answer, and then he leaves.

How could you???? That was not s ve sekar.. that was ‘Sirippo sirippu’ which surprisingly is one of the most resilient memess of the audio-cassette-humour era…. I have never ceased to be surprised by the number of people who quote that – but all of them have lost their own copies…..

the “how could you” of the previous comment is a lament from one fan of SS to another.. ;p also, do u remembet the ‘chitti kuruvi bank’ ad for attracting potential Bank Robbers… and the amazing trailer for that epic movie a la 36 chamber of shaolin

And also usually people whine that Kamal Haasan tries to force his atheistic thoughts in his films…how do you see this film? Don’t you think this film, too, is highly propagandish? And உங்களுக்கு கடவுள் நம்பிக்கை உண்டா?

i think what they have done is to take a babel like plot to the masses laced with comedy & ‘point at your face’ correlation. but in that process we kinda feel like you mentioned here ‘why oh why’.

Anyway the trick seemed to have worked. people here & andhra are welcoming the recital message rather than the subtle ones.

Strange thing is, this movie kinda transported me to the golden period of KB as well as kept shuttling me to his poor form movies. oh mr.KB i think u shld write your 102 film now if not able to direct it.

“•If you want proof that this is a director armed with a sledgehammer, the last scene has it. The boy shows he’s a genius. His grandfather shows he won’t be a pushover any longer. It should have ended there. Instead, we get this sentiment hammered in by the villain. ”

In the Telugu original, it just ended there. I wonder why when remade, such changes are made.

Baradwaj, LOL @ the ‘Chinna Thalapathy’ comment. Do you know what Vishal is called?….’Puratchi Thalapathy’!!! WTF. Why are the tamils obsessed with the ‘thalapathy’ position? Presently, we have Stalin, Vijay, Bharath and Vishal, many others would surely join them.

Saw it in Telugu. Maybe some of Anushka’s scenes were directly taken from the Telugu version without re-shooting?

I remember wishing that Vedam didn’t have so many story arcs. Because beyond the first few story arcs, you stop caring. I particularly felt the stories of the Muslim guy and of Bharat were totally unnecessary – its like the director wants to address every issue this country faces!

And for a movie that is (relatively) shorn of masala, the end felt completely out of place for me.

I think the director Krish did much better with his first outing Gamyam – not sure if it was made/released in Tamil, but I prefered that over this.

WTF indeed. Ilaya, then chinna… Why are they doing this? I thought “Superstar” was an embarrassing title. And then, Kamal used (possibly unwittingly) Padma Shri, then the idiotic “ulaga nayakan”.
But what is most disturbing is, someone actually WANTS to be the next Vijay! WTF!

reel Tamilnadu is capable of so much renaissance, dinchaknow?
That wayward woman would become straight as a rod with just one sharp slap from the right hand. That sinful villain would reform by one honest woman’s tears. So on and so forth. Two people I enjoyed watching in this movie – Santhanam and Saranya. Scary to think of Saranya as a plush society matron.

Climax seemed to lack a bit of depth. I thought it was just me, but looks like other venerable souls found it likewise 😉

“those lost three-odd-minutes of our life”, “except, probably, that long, long waist”, “who pets her Siamese kitten as she picks up young studs in a BMW” – so the good ol’ humor is back. We missed you.

Art Vandelay: Padma Shri actually is quite okay I think. It’s like being knighted and then calling yourself Sir So-and-so. Sivaji too used to prefix his name with Padma Shri as well as Nadigar Thilagam.

Untill Simbu shakes off the I was jilted by my lover(s) in real life and I’ll fall for any script that reflects my inner turmoil (wronged by women), he’s not going to focus on the Characterization. Desperation etc. can wait.

BTW, could not stop laughing (very) loud at:
“…this line is trotted out, exhaustingly, each time a character, in his nenju, unarndhufies a thavaru that he’s done.”

Vaanam had a certain tone about it which I liked. About money, virtues and stuff. Perhaps the director wanted to move a separate film about Anushka character and a separate one about Simbu’s characterization. There is not coherence in narration nor any logic. The characters are somehow forced to meet rather being intergrated well into the narration. Saranya’s characterization was the only saving grace of this “mediocre” movie. It starts at somewhere and ends at nowhere. Thankfully, the writing is not too lazy here.